I agree w/some of what has been said. You should learn scales on your bass, as well as arpeggios/triads. Warm-up with them or at the end doesn't matter, but you will be glad later that your fingers will be in 'auto-mode' for that suff. That is where you will pull your leads from (later when ready to solo) and also get you thru songs you aren't familiar w/. All you will need to know is what key/scale a song is in, and your scales practice tells you what to play from there.
6 months of lessons are a worthwhile investment. After that, you can go back on occasion to learn more advanced stuff when ready to. It just speeds up the process, and helps to not get into bad technique which can be very difficult to break the habit of later.
Hope that helps, and enjoy layin' down the low end!
